


Squeakers

by Bam4Me



Series: The Multiverses Least Dangerous Pair [2]
Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Caregiver!Rick, Gen, Non-Sexual Age Play, Switch!Summer, little!Morty, little!Summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-17 21:39:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13085895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bam4Me/pseuds/Bam4Me
Summary: Rick contemplates things, and also avoids contemplating them. Like a healthy repressed male.





	Squeakers

**Author's Note:**

> restlesscartoons.tumblr.com

Rick was sitting back on his heels in the kitchen while he worked on a mechanical device that was actively trying to remove itself from his hold. Luckily, when you have two littles for grandchildren, you’re used to squirming. “Hold still you little shit.”

 

The robot let out an angry chittering noise, but begrudgingly settled down and stopped trying to get away. Beth set down a plate for him on the kitchen table, cautiously sitting down close to him. “Dad, what is that and why does it hate you?”

 

“He.”

 

Beth sighed. “I’m sorry, who’s  _ he _ ?”

 

Rick snorted. “Nanny cam for Morty. His name’s, his name is Squeakers.”

 

Beth had  _ so _ many questions. “Why Squeakers?”

 

Rick shrugged. “I was going to fix that, but his leg is messed up, makes a squeak whenever he moves, and I made the dumb mistake of l-letting M-Morty name him.”

 

Beth snorted. “That’s your own fault.”

 

Rick sighed. “Yeah, it is. H-h-he’s just a b-baby though, what can you do.”

 

Beth seemed to think that one over for a minute, before replying, looking a little unnerved. “Dad, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. Morty’s… different, you know, since Snuffles tried to take over the world before moving to a new one.”

 

Rick looked up at her a little funny. “I don’t see any difference. Still the same annoying little shit who refuses to take his naps.”

 

Beth chewed on her lip in thought. Rick and Morty hadn’t hidden how they got Snowball to change his mind about world enslavement. “What did the two of you do that year you were in Snuffles’ head?”

 

“Made useless inventions, killed a few guys, playdates at the park, normal bonding, you know.”

 

Beth didn’t really think that was  _ normal bonding _ but she wasn’t gonna be the one to tell him. For them, that  _ was _ normal bonding. Actually, back when she was a kid, that sort of fell under the premise of normal bonding too. “Yeah. So, I guess, he spent a lot of the time there little, right?”

 

Rick popped the backing off the robot’s bulky body casing. He looked like a security camera with arms and legs, sort of like that webcam he’d given an AI and consequently, an existential crisis, but this was bigger. Big as a toddler, but a lot bulkier. “I guess so, yeah. He was really upset without you guys at first, but after a while he took my word for it that none of it was real, started treating it like a vacation like I told him to. Sweetie, can you hand me that socket wrench?”

 

Beth handed over the aforementioned wrench. “So, Morty is essentially, a year older than we all think he is?”

 

Rick shrugged. “Age is relative. Why do you think there are littles and bigs in the first place? Morty’s mind has been alive for a little more than a year further than his body, but mentally? He’s all little. I’d say anywhere between one to three. Really, he’s not nearly as big as you guys think he is. Last week I heard Jerry say he thought Morty was too big for pacifiers and he could probably try pull ups like Summer, let me tell you, he’s not big enough for that.”

 

“No, that I understand, but… but mentally, he’s had over a year to get used to being a little, and in fact, is  _ past _ the settling period where littles usually get into a more permanent headspace?”

 

Rick looked down at the wrench with both eyebrows raised. “Um… yes.”

 

“And not only that, but they  _ only _ person that he was around while he was settling, was  _ you? _ ”

 

“You say that as if it’s a bad thing.”

 

“It’s not, but you should  _ know _ what that means-”

 

“Please don’t say it-”

 

“Dad, he’s  _ fully _ imprinted on you. He might never be able to have another caregiver because he’ll always be comparing them to you now. He might never want to go to another caregiver in his life.”

 

Rick was silent for a long moment, fiddling with a wire inside the robot before closing him back up and letting him go. The little robot whirred off without a care, happy little chirping noises following him. “I told you not to say it.”

 

“Well, it could be worse. Morty presented into full headspace  _ years _ before he should have. He never actually had a chance to try dating or finding someone he could love. He  _ barely _ has a future out of headspace as it is. At least he didn’t imprint on someone who hated him.”

 

Rick got up from the floor with a little sigh, sitting next to Beth on the table and picking at the sandwich she’d brought him. “He deserves that. To get a chance to choose his life, before his brain takes that decision away from him.”

 

Beth didn’t seem too concerned. “Dad, we both know if he got a chance, he’d choose you anyways. He follows you like a lost puppy-”

 

“Because his b-broken brainwaves have forced him to atta-ach himself to people who take care of him, he could j-just as easily have imprinted on you or Summer-”

 

“But he didn’t.”

 

Rick didn’t like this at all. He didn’t like that he forced Morty into adventures with him  _ so _ often that he had issues even  _ talking _ to people his own age. He didn’t like that Morty had a dependency on him bordering on dangerous and he couldn’t bring himself to help him with it. He hated that Morty was basically being  _ forced _ to be an infant for the rest of his life, unable to live on his own, and unable to grow up like others.

 

Most of all, he hated how much he loved the idea of taking care of that little brat for the rest of their lives. He hated that he thought of it whenever he put him down for bed, whenever Morty held onto Rick’s lab coat when he followed Rick in a store, whenever Morty got a booboo and came crying to him for a kiss better. He hated that he felt  _ relieved _ when he thought of Morty never growing up and leaving him like all the other Mortys did to their Ricks.

 

No, he felt happy, when he thought of Morty just staying with him. Not even to keep him hidden from the federation, just to have him close by. Safe. Well, as safe as a Rick and a Morty can get, anyways.

 

He just wished that he knew if it had been Morty’s decision, or just nature speeding his life up.

 

Morty came walking past the dining room entrance with a teddy bear in his arms, the nanny cam robot following close behind. Morty had yet to show any sort of attachment towards stuffed animals, but his collection seemed to be growing weekly, with someone always getting him a new one, family, friends, other kids at school who thought he was cute and probably wanted him to fall in love with them or some shit. Rick made sure to dispose of  _ those _ stuffed animals before Morty could get attached.

 

“So… is that thing gonna follow him around forever?”

 

Rick shook his head. “No. It’s programmed to recognize Morty in littlespace and follow him then to make sure he doesn’t get hurt. He’ll follow Morty anywhere that’s not a bathroom or his bedroom, but he’ll go in those if he hears upsetting noises anyways.”

 

“Why would Morty need a nanny cam at all? Not like you trust babysitters enough to leave him with one.”

 

Rick looked at Beth like she was a little slow. “A little rarely has a concept of privacy, and Morty for sure, does not, but that doesn’t mean he’s little a hundred percent of the time. We need to give him that space when he needs it. The robot will inform us if he’s hurt. He’s not to  _ invade _ Morty’s privacy, but to keep it.”

 

The concept seemed almost entirely new to her, but she liked it. 

 

***

 

“Summer, p-p-play?”

 

Morty was sitting in the living room on the floor, he had a set of legos in front of him, spilled out in the carpet while he built something important. He wasn’t sure what it was yet, but it was important, and he hoped Rick liked it. He was gonna give it to him later. Frankly, Summer thought it looked like a pointy blob.

 

She sent off one last text to a friend of hers and slid onto the ground across from him on the other side of the pile of legos, and grinned at him. Morty was the best little brother ever sometimes, she loved him to pieces. “Of course.”

 

Morty smiled and went back to his strange creation while Summer started making a house. They liked legos.

 

Rick passed through about five minutes later on his way to the garage and paused to watch them for a moment.

 

Squeakers was watching Morty while the littles played, and Morty had a massive block of legos in his mouth while he continued building with them. Squeakers was  _ not _ offering Morty any of the pacifiers he had in his chest compartment though. Oh great, he’s going to have to fix that later.

 

He sighed and went over to where they were playing, pressing a button on the side of the monitor and a little compartment opened, showing a sterilized pacifier ready to be used. “M-Morty, hey buddy, how about we use this instead of the legos. Legos c-can be pretty sharp.”

 

Morty whined a little when Rick took the lego block out of his mouth, but placidly accepted the pacifier as a replacement. That  _ did _ feel better, wow. Rick was a genius.

 

Rick just smiled, carding his fingers through baby soft curls, leaning in to press a kiss to the littles head before turning and doing the same to Summer. The little girl grinned at him before going back to her little house.

 

God, his grandkids were cute.

**Author's Note:**

> restlesscartoons.tumblr.com


End file.
